Spectrum Computing

chwe wrote: ↑Wed Jun 05, 2024 3:31 pm Apologies, I am interested in +3e hard drive partition limitations

ooops! i'm sorry, somehow i missed that "(e)". "i need a vacation." (c) ;-)

+3 headers usually required if you want the files to be accessible from BASIC, for example. if you are working with files from machine code only, there is usually little reason to have those headers. files with headers are normal CP/M files, they simply contain a specially-formated record in the fir...

but at least leave the crater as an option, please! it is way more funny to fail in such a spectacular way. ;-)

flatduckrecords wrote: ↑Wed May 29, 2024 11:26 am I got a bit confused towards the end, and not only crashed but made a crater 150KM deep :dance

i hope that was the back side of the moon. we'll never see it anyway, so you may destroy it as you like. ;-)

'cmon, it's not a game mechanic per se, it is an artifact of conversion from single-screen game to scrolling game. it never really meant to work this way (and the game was initially designed to fit the screen completely, with smaller graphics). p.s.: atari 800 definitely had this catatonic camera to...

worcestersource wrote: ↑Thu May 23, 2024 10:12 pm How would you describe the scrolling in Boulder Dash?

awful. ;-)

and while i am here… yes, everything redesigned yet again! ;-) the culprit is this code from my sprite editor: 4 for over c@ over c! swap 1+ swap scr$v endfor currently, it compiles to: 806F: DD 2B dec ix 8071: DD 2D dec xl 8073: DD 36 00 04 ld 0 (ix+), # $04 8077: D1 pop de 8078: 1A ld a, (de) 8079...

interesting does the compiler understand when one byte of the word wasn't used/changed? like "@ + c!" or even "addr1 @ addr2 c@ or addr1 !" yes, this is one of the important goals, and that's why the compiler is still in R&D stage: i am evaluating various ways to implement m...

by the way, i am Teh Official Idiot. what Patrik says in the following quote is not only right, but the official Zilog manual explicitly says exactly that — and i should have read the manual before trying to reply anything. Only the first fetch of the HALT itself. Then it executes NOPs internally, w...

p.s.: of course, the usual constant folding optimisations are there too, and better than they were before. "zx: some-word 42 69 + ;" is optimised to: (ENTER) exit-label: $004C66F0 jpp-label: $004C66F8 (#) 111 (SPILL-ALL) (LEAVE) exit-label: $004C66F0 jpp-label: $004C66F8 and "zx: some...

new rule-based codegen did the code for Eratosthenes test, yay! the test doesn't use manual optimisation tricks anymore (now it is the normal "U<" instead of "-"): zx: do-prime ( -- count ) flags size -1 fill 0 0 << ( count index ) dup flags + c@ ?< dup 2* 3 + 2dup + << dup size ...

But on the other hand, I do know there are programmers in this community who enjoy the challenge of a limited size code, which is why 16k appeals to some. What are your own feelings on this? Is a limit to code size sometimes fun - but usually not? it depends of a motivation. i mean, i, for example,...

also, how should we count the code in Joffa engines, for example? Firefly JIT-compiles screen blitter for each frame… is jitted code a code? or is it a data, because it is created in a separate buffer? ;-)

that's why i have "sprview" tool in ZXEmuT — to avoid abusing other tools. (and to easily steal sprites too. ;-)

i smell Nintendo's "Game & Watch" here. ;-) sorry, i simply couldn't kept that joke to myself. no offences, please, i'm not trying to make fun of you or your ideas: trying to bring something new on the table is always great, even if it won't materialize. the attemt itself is already va...

I have two reasons, actually: 1. First and foremost, I'd love to make a Speccy game someday and wanted some idea how much room the code will take up so I can plan the scope of the other data. i'd say that the best way is to write an engine first. at least some essential parts of it, like rendering ...

i wonder why OP is interested. prolly they have some bigger question in mind. @Lee Bee, if this is true, could you tell us that bigger question, please? ;-)

the greatest game of all times is this.

/discussion

F8 approaching beta soon. (hehe. i hope.) and it is a major rewrite too. i realised that what i actually have is a huge pattern matcher, disguised as Forth code. but hey, Forth is ideally suited for DSLs! so now codegen is driven by rule database, like this (by the way: it is still Forth code, not s...

may i give you a small advice based on my own expirience? stop thinking, start doing! you may evaluate various tools 'till the sun burns out, but it won't help you to create a game. just choose the tool which works, and try to create something simple with it. do not aim at anything big first: create...

it's not that draconian. even if you want to keep basic and IM1, it is enough to properly set BANKM ($5B5C) system variable, and don't have the stack after $C000 (with CLEAR 49151, for example). now you only have to disable interrupts while doing bank switching and updating BANKM, and you can have a...

i should add that Soldier One is a nice game too. could be much better if they'd simply throw away vertical scrolling, and add some colors. i'd rather have some attr clash instead of boring monochrome playfield.

there is no reason to pretend that Batty will not win, so i will simply do the obvious thing, and choose Batty…

then finished up writing stuff for Firebird and cover tapes. for me, it looks like "going indie", with some strange game ideas nobody wanted to sell full-price. i now think that "a whole new ball game" is really fun, but i wouldn't pay for it back in the day. it also looks like ...

one of the funniest things in "retro-programming" is working with the machine limitations in mind, i believe. otherwise we could simply write software for modern computers, and don't bother with attr clashes, counting ticks, and so on. using cross-development systems is not a cheat, though...